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Accessible E commerce Forum 7th meeting

31 October 2002

Present:
Graeme Innes, Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner (Chair)
Gaynor Gravestock, Internet Industry Association
Tony Burke, Australian Bankers' Association
Mark Bagshaw, International Marketing Manager, IBM Australasia
Michael Small, HREOC
Bruce Maguire, HREOC

Apologies:
Stan Moore, Australian Retailers' Association
Helen Scott, Information Manager, Council on the Ageing
Paul Waterhouse, Property Council of Australia
Peter Huta, National Office for the Information Economy
Amanda Davies, Civil Justice Division, Attorney General's Department
Karen Smith, Public Affairs Adviser, Credit Union Services Corporation (by phone)
Tim Noonan, Blind Citizens Australia
Kevin Byrne, Physical Disability Council of Australia
Bridget Larsen, Australian Information Industry Association

1. Matters arising from previous meeting:

Matters arising were listed as ongoing agenda items.

2. HREOC Update

Mr Small informed Forum members that the Commission continued to receive a number of complaints relating to e commerce access on areas that could be addressed through adoption of the voluntary industry standards.

Mr Small reported that the Commission was continuing to discuss implementation of the industry standards with industry associations and would soon be seeking meetings with individual financial institutions to discuss progress being made.

Mr Small also provided an update on the Commission's proposed web usability project. Following the call for Expressions of Interest to undertake a review of web accessibility earlier in the year the Commission has reconsidered how to achieve the best outcome from this project. A revised project will seek to establish partnerships with a number of organisations to work together on identifying features that would make their web sites more usable for people with a range of disabilities. Partnerships will be sought with Government Departments, financial institutions, educational institutions, information service providers and retail bodies. Lessons learnt from the various partnerships will be used by the Commission to develop 'usability' guides.

Mr Maguire provided an update on the Commission's work in the area of access to material for students with print disabilities and copyright. The Commission held a Forum on these issues in May 2002. Following the Forum a Steering Committee was established jointly by the Commission and the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC). The Committee has members from a number of Universities as well as the Department of Education, Science and Training, Blind Citizens Australia, the Tertiary Education Disability Council of Australia, and the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc.
Secretariat support will be provided by AVCC and the purpose of the Steering Committee is to develop strategies for implementing the recommendations that came from the Forum. An inaugural meeting of the Committee will take place on 1 November 2002.

Finally, Mr Small informed the Forum of a new Telecommunications Access Project the Commission was about to start work on. Following receipt of a number of complaints and approaches from Blind Citizens Australia and the Australian Association of the Deaf the Commissioner has decided to develop a discussion paper on difficulties in accessing telecommunications products and services for people with disabilities. Expressions of Interest for developing the discussion paper will be sought in early November. The primary objective of the discussion paper is to raise the profile of accessibility issues and assist the Commission to establish an agreed framework for action to reduce discrimination.

3. IIA/AIMIA Action Plan

Ms Gravestock reminded Forum members of the recent launch of the IIA/AIMIA Action Plan which had attracted some media coverage. Ms Gravestock outlined the major objectives of the plan and provided an update on progress made. The annual AIMIA web awards now require compliance with W3C level 1 as a core requirement for eligibility which is a major development over previous years. IIA will be liaising with other award bodies such as AIIA, Yahoo and the Institute of Public Administration Australia to encourage a similar requirement.

IIA is also developing its resources online to provide practical information and testing tools to members on the design and construction of accessible web sites. Mr Bagshaw noted that the best approach would be to develop web design tools which would effectively make it impossible to design a web site without access.

Mr Maguire is to hold further discussions with Ms Gravestock on links to useful tools and information.

4. Update on Disability Solutions Innovation Centre

Mr Bagshaw provided an update on progress made in establishing the Disability Solutions Innovation Centre. The Centre is soon to be established within the Australian Technology park in Sydney. The Ability Australia Foundation has now been able to establish a partnership to launch the centre with support from the NSW Government, Westpac, IBM and Telstra.

A business plan is being finalised based on work identifying the business case for the Centre initiated by AAF, IBM and Deakin University. The Centre aims to develop mainstream products and services to tap into a market that clearly exists and to find applications for the many new technologies that currently sit on the shelf in many businesses. Businesses investing in the Centre will do so on the basis of an expected return on their investment rather than as a 'community' project.

Mr Bagshaw agreed to check on the possibility of Forum members gaining access to the material developed by Deakin University.

5. Other reports

Mr Burke provided an update on the work of ABA in relation to the industry standards. He reported on a number of initiatives by individual banks particularly in the area of internet access and ATMs.

Mr Burke reported that the ABA would be reviewing the technical content of the standards early next year and that a new Working Group would be established to work on outstanding issues such as Smart Cards.

Ms Scott was not able to attend the meeting but had asked that members be alerted to a number of items on the COTA website www.cota.org.au including: Accessible e-commerce: crossing the digital generation gap, presented at the 3rd International Conference of the Australian Institute of Computer Ethics (AICE), 30 September 2002; an annotated bibliography on older people and IT and the COTA submission to the Broadband Advisory Group.

Ms Scott also reported that NEAT (Network of Education Ageing and Technology) now has a small online presence at the UNE Institute for Rural Futures site
http://www.ruralfutures.une.edu.au/about/socimpact/retire/neat/neat.html

Mr Huta was not able to attend the meeting but provided a report on NOIE activities:

Government Online Update

The Government Online Strategy was released in April 2000. The aim of the strategy was to provide the strategic framework to assist agencies in meeting key online commitments. In particular to:

To measure progress against these key commitments NOIE developed the Government Online Reporting Framework. Under the framework, four reporting rounds were held revealing significant whole-of-government progress. There are now in excess of 1,600 government services and information sources available online and all agencies report that they have met the important target of having all appropriate services online by December 2001. Departments and agencies have also progressed well in meeting minimum standards and guidelines, with the vast majority of agencies reporting that they meet key requirements.

While the Government Online Reporting Framework has provided valuable information about agency progress, it only tells part of the story - some quantitative measures of the provision of government services. However, it is equally important to measure levels of demand and to assess whether clients obtain benefits from online service delivery. Likewise, it is important for Government to ensure that online services remain cost effective and provide a return on investment.

To facilitate this, NOIE is undertaking the e-Government Benefits Study. The aim of the study is to:

The study is now underway and results are expected to be available by the end of the year.

Digital Divide Forum

The Online Council Digital Divide Forum has met twice: on 19 April in Canberra and on 6 September in Sydney. The Forum is attended by senior officials from State, Territory and Local Governments and from key Commonwealth Government agencies (DCITA, DEST, FACS and NOIE).

The main activities of the Forum currently involve:

Computer Recycling

The Digital Divide Forum agreed to receive updates on the NSW Government Computer Reuse pilot program, and preparing a future paper for Online Council on the outcomes of the pilot program and the feasibility of other States developing their own computer re-use programs.

Further details of the NSW Government's Computer Reuse program can be found online at: http://www.oit.nsw.gov.au/pages/9.2.EOI.htm .

Digital Divide Cross Sector Working Group

The Cross Sector Working Group consists of approximately 30 organisations from the corporate, community and government sectors. It is endeavouring to encourage collaboration on Digital Divide projects, and to create an ongoing forum for the exchange of ideas and identifying new project opportunities to tackle digital exclusion in Australia. Consultants Positive Outcomes are facilitating this work.

The Group has agreed to undertake a six month trial, using an existing Digital Divide project clearinghouse - Digital Dividend (http://www.digitaldividend.org) - as an online mechanism for organisations to exchange ideas and information and to stimulate project collaboration.

The Group is looking for Digital Divide projects that:

For more information about how to participate go to the Positive Outcomes' website (http://www.positiveoutcomes.com.au ) or e-mail Alice Cahill of Positive Outcomes or call Alice on (02) 9705 7456.

The Group's activities will be officially launched by Senator Alston in Sydney on 27 November 2002. It is anticipated that the Australian Information Industries Association (AIIA) will take a greater role in the operations of the Group in 2003, including increased promotion of corporate social responsibility to its member companies.

ICT Literacy for Older People

NOIE is collaborating with DEST on research and policy development on the IT skills and access needs of mature aged and older people. Dr Nelson has held two roundtables (with the community/education sector including COTA and the ICT industry) to explore the issue and identify priorities and possible future approaches, including industry-community partnerships. There is also an interest by DEST in a possible mapping of existing ICT initiatives for seniors.

The contact in DEST on this issue is: Ross Young, IT Skills Team, Industry Training Branch Tel: 02 6240 7341 email: ross.young@dest.gov.au .

DEST is due to shortly announce the successful tenderer for its IT Skills for Older Workers initiative (see http://itskills.dest.gov.au ).

Broadband Advisory Group

The Broadband Advisory Group (BAG) is developing a range of recommendations to contribute to the Commonwealth Government's strategic review of broadband policy. Several discussion papers concerning broadband issues in key sectors such as health and education have been produced, demonstrating that there are clear public benefits from an accelerated takeup of broadband. In addition they have noted the growing importance of broadband applications in high level research and development. These papers are available online at: http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/framework/Priorities/BAG.htm .

The discussion paper Broadband in Health: Drivers, Impediments and Benefits. (http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/BAG/Broadband_inHealth_final.PDF ) examines clinical applications of broadband technology in the areas of diagnosis, treatment, medical tests, surgery, post-operative consultations, on-going treatment/monitoring. The benefits of the use of online technologies in clinical applications include more timely health care, improved access to health services and reduced travel and costs for people with disabilities. The discussion paper features leading edge Australian examples of the application of online technologies in the health services field.

The BAG has also provided a public submission phase and copies of submissions received can be read on the BAG section of the NOIE website (see above). In the aged and disability field, public submissions were received from:

The BAG will shortly meet to discuss possible policy options that might be recommended as part of a national strategy for broadband.

6. Future role for Forum

Deputy Commissioner Innes proposed that the Forum should continue in a less formal way as a network for information sharing, only meeting at the request of members on specific issues. He suggested that a number of processes were now in place that are addressing the issues discussed at the Forum. The Commission had an ongoing commitment to:

Ms Davies had forwarded her views on the future of the Forum saying:

AGD would be very keen to see the Forum continue to act as an information network, so that it acts as a circulation point for information about work being done in this area. This sharing of information about the various projects underway is very useful, and I think forum members provide a very valuable source of ideas and support. Rather than being reliant on forum meetings, I would hope that this can continue to occur on an ongoing basis. So, we would prefer that meetings, rather than being scheduled, be called if and when a need to do so is identified.

Ms Gravestock supported the proposal but sought assurances that the Forum could be re-convened in specific circumstances at the request of members.

Mr Bagshaw expressed some concern about the consequences of the proposed changes saying that he thought the Forum had effectively driven a number of processes that are now delivering real outcomes. Mr Bagshaw asked that the Commission develop specific objectives for each of the ongoing commitments to clarify how we would build on the outcomes achieved.

Deputy Commissioner Innes agreed to develop specific objectives and circulate them to all Forum members.

No meeting date was set but Deputy Commissioner Innes invited members to request a future meeting as issues arose.